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Leng posted:If you want historical Chinese fiction in a fantasy setting done well when the protagonist has an equally vague motivation ("become great"), read She Who Became the Sun. How does Ken Liu's Dandelion Dynasty stuff stack up? I've only read The Grace of Kings and I liked it all right, although I found the characters and world a bit dry and sketchy.
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Oct 26, 2022 06:15
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Everyone posted:They did and they're really good. I got autographed hardcover copies of books 3 and 4 for free in exchange for helping edit Books 3 and 4. Book 5 is coming up and I'll apparently get paid in actual money for doing it this time.
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Oct 26, 2022 07:19
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idiotsavant posted:Idk if you'd place it in Asian fantasy or not but the Nghi Vo novellas (Empress of Salt and Fortune, When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain have been pretty good, too - Tiger especially so. Just really, really good storytelling The third in this series, Into the Riverlands, just came out yesterday and continues the trend of being excellent.
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Oct 26, 2022 08:59
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ZyrKx posted:The third in this series, Into the Riverlands, just came out yesterday and continues the trend of being excellent. been waiting for SFPL to pick it up for overdrive  Tiger was so loving good
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Oct 26, 2022 10:20
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quantumfoam posted:-The inter-dimensional tourist with the Dutch->Lankhmarese phrasebook and their unruly companion that predates Terry Pratchett's Twoflower & the Luggage by a decade or so. It would have to have, what with the opening of The Colour of Magic being a parody of that scene.
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Oct 26, 2022 11:02
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Jedit posted:It would have to have, what with the opening of The Colour of Magic being a parody of that scene. They probably stole a summer house and moved it into a bit I wasn't using.
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Oct 26, 2022 11:51
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Metis of the Hallway posted:She's so good. I should reread her stuff, I don't think I've read any of her books since I was an actual teen. Hexwood and Archer's Goon especially got much better as an adult, they're a tad on the confusing side for teens. Witch Week too.
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Oct 26, 2022 13:18
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Months ago somebody recommended Our shared storm: a novel of five climate futures andrew by dana hudson It's incredible. And short, everyone should read it. It's five alternative versions of the COP (global climate change conference) in 2054, showing how the conference/characters/the world change depending on the path humanity decided to take. Each scenario is based on one of the pathways presented in a report by the UN. It was praised by Kim Stanley Robinson, so it also has that going for it. Despite it being sci-fi or cli-fi if you prefer, most of the changes are social.
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Oct 26, 2022 16:37
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90s Cringe Rock posted:Huh, neat. I wrote it off because of the blockchain poo poo it's a spin-off from, but getting blockchain wankers to fund you to make something cool isn't too bad. If you don't want to get into the NFT/blockchain cryptocurrency sorcery, then don't. Just buy the gamebooks. They're really well written.
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Oct 26, 2022 17:46
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Provenance by Ann Leckie - $1.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06XW6YTKV/ Aurora by Kim Stanley Robinson - $1.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00NERQRPI/ Red Moon by Kim Stanley Robinson - $1.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B079L5PTZS/ Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C Clarke - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07XD75HGV/
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Oct 26, 2022 23:53
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Leng posted:If you want fantasy China with an angry Asian female anti-hero on a villain arc but YA, read Iron Widow. Prepare for extreme levels of Twitter-like dialogue and dark Asian wish fulfilment. I would totally cosign the Green Bone rec, but I think extreme levels of Twitter-like dialogue might still be understating it a bit for Iron Widow. E.g. this thing which the main character unironically says: quote:“You’ve been living a dream for long enough!” I yell at the cameras between bursts of maniacal laughter, raising my arms. “Welcome to your nightmare!” (also, enjoying the start of your book so far!, tx for recommending)
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Oct 27, 2022 02:16
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Leng posted:If you want post-magic school fantasy with an angry Asian female underdog fighting against privileged rich kids in a job hunt tournament, read my book Amazon has some of my money for you now. Looking forward to Petition arriving this Saturday
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Oct 27, 2022 02:43
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Mr. Nemo posted:Months ago somebody recommended Oh poo poo, I need to read this. I enjoyed a lot of Robinson's Ministry for the Future, but the entire time I was thinking it was goddamned pollyannaish and in reality we're way more hosed. So i'll be very interested to see how these versions work out.
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Oct 27, 2022 05:54
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I'd say some of the scenarios are still a little pollyanna but it's somewhat more serious.
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Oct 27, 2022 14:47
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Dammit, I just found out the new Eric Carter book was out. Hate Machine by Stephen blackmoore. Came out like a month ago.
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Oct 27, 2022 19:11
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Selachian posted:How does Ken Liu's Dandelion Dynasty stuff stack up? I've only read The Grace of Kings and I liked it all right, although I found the characters and world a bit dry and sketchy. Its a word-for-word retelling of the founding of the Han Dynasty, to the point where I felt bad that Sima Qian didn't get any credit. Is it still appropriation when the original author died 2000 years ago? Its strange because its a very faithful recounting of The Records of the Grand Historian -- to the point where it duly includes elements like Kuni Garu / Liu Bang kicking his kids out of the wagon as he flees a defeat, even though he's also clearly trying to make Garu a softer hero. Its weird to read reviews of this book that are puzzled by the lack of female characters, the "politics and fighting" plot -- yeah, that's because it's a very thin gloss over a history from two thousand years ago! And its even more strange to see reviews calling it 'asian-influenced'. Yes... yes it is. Specifically the Chu-Han Contention. I just felt weird about the endeavor -- it felt like historical fiction that made a marketing decision. Calling it 'Silkpunk' felt like a joke. If I retell the History of the Peloponnesian War, but all my characters wear goggles, have I invented Olivepunk? All that being said the book is fine. The Founding of the Han Dynasty is very compelling, Xiang Yu is one of history's badasses and is super fun. EDIT: Spoiler added for The Records of the Grand Historian [c 91 BC] Copernic fucked around with this message at 19:29 on Oct 27, 2022 |
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Oct 27, 2022 19:24
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Lilith's Brood: The Complete Xenogenesis Trilogy by Octavia E Butler - $3.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B008HALOMI/
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Oct 27, 2022 23:20
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Just finished Peter Clines's Paradox Bound and really enjoyed it.
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Oct 27, 2022 23:26
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Copernic posted:Calling it 'Silkpunk' felt like a joke. If I retell the History of the Peloponnesian War, but all my characters wear goggles, have I invented Olivepunk? 
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Oct 27, 2022 23:34
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Selachian posted:How does Ken Liu's Dandelion Dynasty stuff stack up? I've only read The Grace of Kings and I liked it all right, although I found the characters and world a bit dry and sketchy. I thought it was very weak honestly, consider reading She Who Became The Sun instead, it's way better.
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Oct 27, 2022 23:41
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lol at silkpunk. the only iconic thing to come out of China, silk
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Oct 27, 2022 23:54
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Going to write about a plucky footpad working for the sinister thieves guild in a slum ruled by knightly aristocrats. Er, thatchpunk
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Oct 27, 2022 23:59
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Strategic Tea posted:Going to write about a plucky footpad working for the sinister thieves guild in a slum ruled by knightly aristocrats. Er, thatchpunk Does the footpad end up becoming a knight and does the final confrontation look like this? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4t7JnCW-48
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Oct 28, 2022 01:56
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Copernic posted:
Gonna start calling Evil Hillbilly horror novels methpunk.
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Oct 28, 2022 02:24
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I do actually like how in Terra Ignota, a re-telling of the Iliad with giant space robots is the magnum opus of the beloved dead Apollo, but everyone who's actually read it acknowledges that it's sclocky garbage. Except then it becomes a whole plot point as it seeps into reality.
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Oct 28, 2022 08:45
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Ccs posted:I'm reading The Secret History which isn't a fantasy book, but its amusing how similar it is to The Magicians. I guess both are taking inspiration from Brideshead Revisited, but if they just added a bit of supernatural into The Secret History it would be one of the best fantasy novels set at a school I've ever read (I don't think you could successfully turn it into a "magic school" novel, but they'd just need to make some of the hints of supernatural into actual supernatural to fit the bill.) Donna Tartt was at college with Brett Easton Ellis, it's an interesting counterpoint to his rules of attraction. I don't see the Brideshead comparisons beyond fading wealth and faith, Waugh's book is so much about the decline of aristocracy and Britain's empire. The magicians always read to me just like a paler copy of the secret history with Narnia thrown in. I guess Narnia kind of closes the English upper class Catholicism loop?
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Oct 28, 2022 09:04
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Copernic posted:I just felt weird about the endeavor -- it felt like historical fiction that made a marketing decision. Calling it 'Silkpunk' felt like a joke. If I retell the History of the Peloponnesian War, but all my characters wear goggles, have I invented Olivepunk? i guess it would be unrealistic to have an ancient Greek mechanical engineering Hero
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Oct 28, 2022 15:27
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Copernic posted:i guess it would be unrealistic to have an ancient Greek mechanical engineering Hero im willing to change my position on carceral solutions if it means you can go to jail for this joke
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Oct 28, 2022 15:30
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Don't get steamed.
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Oct 28, 2022 15:47
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pradmer posted:Provenance by Ann Leckie - $1.99 Actually rereading this right now, fun coincidence! Ann Leckie has also announced a fifth book in the Imperial Radch series, Translation State and I am so loving pumped. I finished a reread of the original trilogy recently and I think it's really cemented myself as my favorite scifi space opera-type series. I think it's pretty hit or miss in the thread, but if you like a lot of space station politics and self growth it's really good.
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Oct 28, 2022 19:38
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Still need to finish the Imperial Radch trilogy, but I'll have everything Leckie puts out on my interest radar on The Raven Tower alone.
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Oct 28, 2022 19:48
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tildes posted:I would totally cosign the Green Bone rec, but I think extreme levels of Twitter-like dialogue might still be understating it a bit for Iron Widow. This scene completely owns though. The difference between Iron Widow and most YA novels is it's 100% aware of how campy it is.
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Oct 28, 2022 21:06
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I greatly appreciated how Iron Widow fully commits to its punches instead of pulling them.
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Oct 28, 2022 21:10
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It seems like something I'd enjoy as a movie but it's not really my speed in a book.
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Oct 28, 2022 21:33
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Matter (Culture #7) by Iain M Banks - $1.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000VMHI98/
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Oct 28, 2022 22:47
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Finishing the third book of the Winternight trilogy by Katherine Arden (Bear and the Nightingale, Girl in the Tower, Winter of the Witch) and if anyone's looking for a lot of Russian fairytale stuff with a heaping help of romance it's really great. Nothing groundbreaking or mind-blowing, but just purple enough to be really enjoyable. I'm sure you could break it all down into some pretty common tropes but Arden uses them well. The whole trilogy is absolutely worth the read if that sort of thing appeals to you.
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Oct 28, 2022 22:58
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ulmont posted:...I want you to know that I clicked through only to realize I had already read your book, so I suppose I want a sequel now. tildes posted:(also, enjoying the start of your book so far!, tx for recommending) Everyone posted:Amazon has some of my money for you now. Looking forward to Petition arriving this Saturday You guys are the best!   Re: sequel, I'm about 100k words into a (hopefully) 120k rough draft so...fingers crossed for next year.idiotsavant posted:I just got done reading everything Zen Cho has written and it's all so loving good. ZyrKx posted:The third in this series, Into the Riverlands, just came out yesterday and continues the trend of being excellent. sebmojo posted:Cj cherryhs The Paladin is an excellent angry not-Chinese lady doing a revenge rampage with her over-it sensei yarn (it's a fantasy world, but the vibe is definitely Chinese( Selachian posted:How does Ken Liu's Dandelion Dynasty stuff stack up? I've only read The Grace of Kings and I liked it all right, although I found the characters and world a bit dry and sketchy.  so I'm waiting for it to come in. Will report back when I get through it!What I did finish recently: The Hand of the Sun King - I had fun reading this. Slower-paced than I normally prefer, but I'm always a sucker for anything with a mystery plot centered on "what is going on with the magic?" The characters were okay; only one or two leaped off the page at me, but I did enjoy that the plot did not always go predictably for the protagonist. Wen Alder, a.k.a. Foolish Cur, is well named. Enjoyed it enough that I'll pick up the sequel, The Garden of Empire. If you did not like The Poppy War taking the abrupt left turn from the Sinegard plotline, then you might enjoy this one—angry half-Asian dude from a conquered province in rebellion places first in the Imperial exams, gets magical powers bestowed upon him by the Emperor, and has to resolve his identity crisis in order to find true power and save his homeland. The Raven Tower - another slow, fun read! I dig the first person rock POV narrating the events in second person but it took me a while to get into it. Ann Leckie is brilliant. I desperately need a change of pace but I'm still 2/10 in the reserve line for The Golden Enclaves  so I might need to go pick up, I don't know, probably Scales and Sensibility which is a finalist in this year's Self-Published Fantasy Blog Off because Austen-esque dragons sounds pretty appealing right now.
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Oct 28, 2022 23:12
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Copernic posted:Its a word-for-word retelling of the founding of the Han Dynasty, to the point where I felt bad that Sima Qian didn't get any credit. Is it still appropriation when the original author died 2000 years ago? The later books either stray a lot or the Australian education system has really undersold Chinese scientific history. I thought it was ok enough to keep reading through it as I don’t know the original, but the style used gets dull with some of the plot lines, especially in the last book. Hundreds of pages of iron chef village wasn’t great.
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Oct 28, 2022 23:19
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Leng posted:Nghi Vo's been on my TBR for ages. I actually have some of these on my Kindle and I keep getting sidetracked from starting them by reserves coming in at my library. I will have to check out the Zen Cho and Cherryh recs. Black Water Sister is I think the book that got Zen Cho more attention but Spirits Abroad is a great short story collection and both are pretty quick reads. Don't worry about getting stuck in the Nghi Vo stuff, either - it's a trilogy of novellas. They're like 150-200ish pages and reasonably self-contained so far. edit: honestly Spirits Abroad is good for that change of pace. A lot of the stories have an awesome blend of goofy humor grounded in gnarly Malaysian folklore. for example House of Aunts is a story about a teenage pontianak (super gnarly kinda tragic Malaysian vampire spirit) who lives with all her pontianak aunties and eats human intestines and has a crush on a boy at her high school; it's just so much goddamn fun idiotsavant fucked around with this message at 23:59 on Oct 28, 2022 |
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Oct 28, 2022 23:48
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idiotsavant posted:Black Water Sister is I think the book that got Zen Cho more attention but Spirits Abroad is a great short story collection and both are pretty quick reads. Don't worry about getting stuck in the Nghi Vo stuff, either - it's a trilogy of novellas. They're like 150-200ish pages and reasonably self-contained so far. Currently reading Peter Clines's The Broken Room to the point where the little kid in the book is telling her story and it makes me want to reach out and just murder the entire U. S. immigration system with my bare hands so it hurts the fuckers more.
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Oct 29, 2022 00:58
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